"These colleges and universities have deeply violated the principles that are supposed to animate higher education," said FIRE President Greg Lukianoff. "Sunlight is one of the best disinfectants, and the public needs to know which schools to watch out for."

Although schools appear on the list in no particular order, the 12 Worst Colleges for Free Speech are:

1. University of Cincinnati

7. Michigan State University

2. Syracuse University

8. Colorado College

3. Widener University

9. Johns Hopkins University

4. Harvard University

10. Tufts University

5. Yale University

11. Bucknell University

6. St. Augustine’s College

12. Brandeis University

Each of these schools earned its place on FIRE’s list by severely violating the speech rights of students, faculty members, or both.

The UniversityofCincinnati tops the list due to its shockingly restrictive free speech zone that limits certain types of student expression to just 0.1% oftheschool‘s 137-acrecampus. The policy, which is now the subject of a federalcivilrightslawsuit, threatens students with criminal prosecution for violations. The university has even refused to let students simply "walk around" to gather petition signatures outside the zone.

Last fall, Harvard University pressured all freshmen to signamoralitypledge promising that they would exercise "civility," threatening academic freedom by announcing a code of ethics before students had taken a single course. Also, Harvard’s licensing office prohibitedYale‘sfreshmanclass from using the names of famous Harvard dropouts Bill Gates or Mark Zuckerberg on T-shirts for the annual Harvard-Yale football game. In December, Harvard’s Arts & Sciences faculty effectively firedalongtimeprofessor because he had published a controversial op–edinIndia about ways to combat Islamic terrorism.

St. Augustine’s College banned a student from graduation merely for advising his fellow students on Facebook tocomeprepared for a contentious meeting about the school’s recovery from a destructive tornado. After he sued, the college extendedhispunishment to ban him from last fall’s Homecoming.

"Before they sign on the dotted line, prospective college students should consider the free speech record of the school they choose to attend," said FIRE Senior Vice President Robert Shibley. "Don’t believe universities’ paper promises of free speech if they are violating those promises in practice."

FIRE is a nonprofit educational foundation that unites civil rights and civil liberties leaders, scholars, journalists, and public intellectuals from across the political and ideological spectrum on behalf of individual rights, freedom of expression, academic freedom, due process, and rights of conscience at our nation’s colleges and universities. FIRE’s efforts to preserve liberty on campuses across America can be viewed at thefire.org.